Denise O'Connor is Professor (Research) and Deputy Director of the Wiser Health Care Unit in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University and NHMRC Investigator Leadership Fellow.

Denise is an implementation scientist and health services researcher and her research explores the causes of, and the design and evaluation of solutions to address, research translation problems. This includes reducing low-value care and improving uptake of effective and efficient models of healthcare service delivery. 

Denise is lead investigator in three NHMRC-funded Centres of Research Excellence (CREs) including Wiser Healthcare (wiserhealthcare.org.au), a national research collaboration that works in partnership with health agencies, clinicians and consumers to ensure better value health care for Australians with a particular focus on reducing overdiagnosis, overtesting and overtreatment; Australia and New Zealand Musculoskeletal Clinical Trials Network (anzmusc.org), a collaboration of researchers, clinicians and consumers who aim to optimise musculoskeletal health by conducting high-quality, clinical and implementation trials; and Redesign of Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs in the Digital Era across One Health (RADAR-1H), which leads effective and sustainable implementation of digital interventions to optimise antimicrobial use in Australia.

She contributes to two Cochrane Collaboration Thematic Groups: People, Health Systems and Public Health, and Musculoskeletal Health and Pain, is Editor with Cochrane Musculoskeletal, and is past Director of the Australasian Satellite of Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care (EPOC). She contributes as Editorial Board member of Implementation Science.

To support her research, she has been awarded three NHMRC Fellowships (Early Career, Translating Research into Practice (TRIP) and Investigator Leadership) and grant funding from other organisations including the Australian Department of Health and Aged Care, the Victorian Department of Health, Cabrini Health and the HCF Research Foundation.